GIRLS SOCCER: Landrus, Citrus Valley complete three-peat

The other girls soccer teams in Division 6 might disagree, especially after watching the Landrus and her Redlands Citrus Valley High teammates win this division’s championship yet again.

For the second consecutive year, Landrus scored what proved to be the match-winner in a championship, as top-seeded Citrus Valley won its third consecutive Southern Section title with a 1-0 victory over Oxnard Pacifica in the D-6 title game at Downey Warren High School.

The victory made the Blackhawks (27-3-1) the first Inland-area girls soccer team to ever win three CIF-SS championships in a row.

“This is better than I could’ve imagined,” Landrus said. “It never gets old winning a CIF championship. It’s not a feeling you can compare anything to.”

“The fact that we were able to bring this back to our school – it’s crazy,” senior defender Breann Demers said.

Unlike last year, when the Blackhawks needed Landrus' 80th-minute counterattack score to defeat Oxnard 1-0, Citrus Valley peppered the Pacifica frame Saturday with 16 shots on goal. Landrus’ score came in the 48th minute, an “awkward” score, she said, that came off a cleared corner kick.

“I stuck my leg up,” she said, “and kind of volleyed it, I guess, and it went in.”

Citrus Valley coach Jacob Geverians said he had the Blackhawks practicing that sort of sequence this week.

“It was a garbage play in which a ball bounced out on a corner kick and we try to get back in,” he said. “It’s something we’ve actually been working on the last couple of days.”

The lead stood, as the Blackhawks’ back line held Pacifica to without a second-half shot on goal until the final 30 seconds of the match.

That all-senior defense – led by Demers and Jennifer Guyett – swept Pacifica’s best scoring chances away any time the Tritons moved on to the Citrus Valley side of the pitch.

“They’ve grown together and played together since they were freshmen,” Geverians said of his defenders. “Once we scored our goal, I was feeling very, very comfortable.”

Playing in its first section final, Pacifica (16-9-3) stayed in the contest thanks to an impressive 14-save performance by senior Jessica Gonzalez.

“She holds our team together,” Tritons coach Rachael Carver said.

Citrus Valley is hoping Saturday wasn’t its swan song for 2014. The CIF Southern California Regional brackets will be released today, and though a section crown doesn’t provide for an automatic berth, the Blackhawks are hoping one. Two years ago, they qualified; last year, they didn't.

“Our goal at the beginning of the season was win regionals, and we’re not going to let go of that goal yet,” Landrus said. “Hopefully, we get in. I want to play in the regionals.”xxx

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